Weather Watch

Blacksburg Weather

The Detailed History link from this page has archived daily climate summaries.

NWS Forecast Graphical | Text | Forecast Table NWS Regional Summary | Discussion uswx.com Blacksburg summary Weather conditions for past 24 hours Recent local daily climate | Archive Local daily data by month Climate summary (monthly norms) Climate calendar (daily norms) Current-weather surface map: (UK or WC) Jet Stream | 34,000' | 300 mb | many levels. 24-hour precip. | Precip predict | Radar loop

The data for the Weather Underground clickable image, the uswx.com summary, and the past 24 hours conditions are all from the Virginia Tech airport, which is also the source for the Blacksburg weather shown on the Weather Channel. The data from the climate summaries are from the NWS (not the airport) sensors. One may have to scroll down to find Blacksburg on the NWS text regional weather summary, which is the text for the overview given on the NOAA weather radio broadcasts.

The National Weather Service Forecast Office - Blacksburg: Local, regional and national forecasts; information on and visuals from the NEXRAD radar; links to other weather information providers. The Hyrdometeorological Prediction Center has links to several graphics for short-range weather predictions. A useful link is a meteorology calculator, which has conversions between temperature scales and calculations of relative humidity, wind-chill temperature, and heat index. A link for astronomical information (sunrise, etc.) is from the U. S. Naval Observatory.

Kevin Myatt's Weather Journal: Myatt, a copy editor for The Roanoke Times, “ is its principal weather geek.” Current entries for his Weather Journal are published three times a week in the Virginia Section. On Fridays his article is on the front page of that section, and on Wednesday and Mondays on the last page — just below the weather summary section. The link above takes you to the online version of his column. Included are links to previous journal entries. His journal presents, in layman terms, background information about current and future weather. Kevin also posts an online blog, which may include updates on fast-changing weather.

Virginia State Climatology Office: Weather facts about Virginia, plus links to other weather-related sites.

National Weather Service - Interactive Weather Information Network: This site provides local forecasts across the nation, national weather warnings, weather related videos, and other weather related information.

Climate Prediction Center: Data and reports on monitoring and predictions from NOAA. Includes 7–10 day, 10–14 day, monthly, and seasonal forecasts. It also has drought, severe weather and El Niño forecasts and assessments. This site also has archived daily weather maps (in very large PDF files). Other sites from NOAA for getting climate data are the National Climate Data Center, and regional climate data centers including the Southeast Regional Climate Center. The NCDC has a couple of pages on a summary of the climate for 2007.

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), at Columbia University in New York City, is a laboratory of the Earth-Sun Exploration Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute. Research at GISS emphasizes a broad study of global climate change.

Intellicast: This site provides weather information for the United States and the world. Many of the maps, etc., from other links on this page are produced by Intellicast.

The Weather Channel Home Page: One can get different types of information including weather maps (list of current and forecast maps with links to small images) and composites of upper-air, wind-gust, and wind-speed maps.

USA Today - Weather News: This site provides USA Today forecasts and weather news for the day. USA Today also has a Guide to the science of the atmosphere.

Unisys Weather: A comprehensive set of pages with current maps (surface, upper-air, satellite) plus archives for surface weather maps, hurricane-track maps, climate models, and much more. Their Upper Air Data Details is a good primer on upper-air maps and has links to the current ones at the different levels.

Hurricanes: During hurricane season (1 June - 30 November), many sites such as Unisys and the Weather Underground have pages with links to information about current and past hurricanes. Here is Dr. William Gray's extended-range forecast for Atlantic seasonal hurricane activity. For historical information, a good site is the Past Hurricane History page from the National Hurricane Center. For each year, there is an image map with the storm tracks of all storms plus a list of their names. Clicking on a name gives maps and detailed information about that storm. Two sites with nice summaries of significant hurricanes from the past are the Unisys Classic Atlantic Hurricanes and Virginia's Hurricanes. 2000 was the 100th anniversary of the Galveston Hurricane, which killed 6000-8000 people. NPR has a RealAudio discussion about the hurricane. On 20 September 2002, NPR Audio had a 20-minute discussion about a possible category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans. The TV show NovaScienceNOW has several videos on hurricanes (enter hurricanes in the search box). Here is a GEOS-12 Visible Channel 1-minute interval SRSO Imagery for Hurricane Isabel from September 13, 2003. (It may take a while to load.)

El Niño. El Niño is the name given for an ocean/climate phenomenon which happens every four to seven years and, when it is intense, has a significant effect on climate throughout the world. The 1997–1998 El Niño is, by most measures, the most intense presentation this century. There are many web links to both the phenomenon and some of its effects. This NOAA Theme Page contains many links describing the phenomenon.

Steve Newman's Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet is published weekly in many papers: Weekly summary highlighted map | Daily updates. Included in the weekly summary page are global high and low temperatures plus hurricanes, earthquakes, extreme flooding, etc., which have occurred during the previous week. Link to archives.